Performance needs constant appraisal and that lends to it an impetus of doing still better if done well and to improve upon in case the output was below the expected levels. An exercise of periodic ranking at the country level in various fields by the states and the Union Territories and making due awareness about it followed by bestowing awards and prizes proves inspirational and motivational for those who lag behind. Recently, we saw such an exercise in respect of ”Swashta Abhiyan” where cities, State capitals and towns were appraised on certain parameters and accordingly ranked. Ease of doing business, in simpler words, means business and related activities carried on with bare minimum hassles. It is the range of business reforms and is an index, an aggregate figure that includes different parameters. These parameters, in fact, define the ease of doing business in a country. How many reforms and regulatory best practices were in force determine the levels of ease of doing business.
In the exercise of annual business ranking of states and Union Territories conducted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Government of India, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has slightly performed better and has been declared having moved one point up by occupying 21st position in comparison to previous ranking. It may be recalled that as per ranking of the year 2015, Jammu and Kashmir was at 29th place and by proverbial fits and starts, in terms of progress levels, it continued to lag behind other states and UTs in majority of areas. Having upped the process of reforms and implementing 149 reforms out of the total of 187, it secured 22nd position in 2017-18 and now stands at the 21st pedestal. There was, however, little scope for feeling any complacent about bringing in more facilities and reforms which warrant putting in of more efforts and emulate success stories of smaller states who have been performing better than Jammu and Kashmir. Assam, Telangana, Lakshdeep and the like have done better and why should there be any hesitation in improving upon the ranking to an enviable figure next year should be taken nothing less than a challenge in Jammu and Kashmir.
Basically, the entire exercise of ranking is being done under the auspices of Business Reform Action plan (BRAP) and the one under reference was its 4th such edition in respect of states and the UTs of the country. In fact, the exercise is to take stock of the measures and the levels of implementation of Business Reform Action Plan which was started in the year 2015. The aim of BRAP is quite wide than what is perceived in that it is adequately acknowledged that the levels of domestic as well foreign investments were inversely proportional to the slew of regulatory best practices and where most of the formalities to set up a business venture were disposed of through a single window system. It also encompasses an business environment, where red-tape and lengthy procedures and avoidable paper works were done away with. How much flexibility was there in areas like access to information, the levels of labour reforms and practices, environmental sustaining related formalities, permits, registration, bank credit and facilities, tax payment mechanism etc determined the levels of ease of doing business.
That the state of Andhra Pradesh succeeded in retaining its top position in the ranking means continuous efforts towards fuller implementation of reforms which could be possible only by the interplaying of the feedback on perpetual basis and close monitoring. Therefore, it entails to find out how rest of the reforms numbering 38 could be implemented and how the humps, if any, could be surmounted. Administrative decisions, various forms of legal support and revenue concerned support base, disputes resolution mechanism and some other areas could not be sailed through so far which require to be looked into and sorted out in time bound manner to achieve not only better ranking in the next exercise but how better a business and investment climate could be created in the UT with intent to aim at self reliance.
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